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Morning Roundup: CPC Signage Law in Maryland County Partially Struck Down

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March 18, 2011

March 18, 2011
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Judge rules that Montgomery County, MD, overstepped on signage requirement at crisis pregnancy centers, fetal pain bill struck down in Arkansas, North Dakota bishops make list of charities Catholics shouldn't support, IRS set to become abortion police if H.R. 3 passes.

A judge has struck down part of the crisis pregnancy center sign requirement enacted by Maryland’s Montgomery County Council. While signs outside the anti-choice centers will still be permitted to state (in English and Spanish), “the Center does not have a licensed medical professional on staff,” the judge ruled that stating, “the Montgomery County Health Officer encourages women who are or may be pregnant to consult with a licensed health care provider” is not “least restrictive means of achieving a relevant government interest.” The council is meeting to determine how to proceed.

A fetal pain measure failed in an Arkansas legislative committee yesterday. It would have banned abortions beyond 20 weeks. The sponsor of the legislation said he will not bring up the bill again this year.

Two North Dakota bishops have created a list of organizations that “good” Catholics should not support with money or volunteer work – mostly for abortion or contraception-related reasons. Planned Parenthood is on the list of course, but more surprising may be the March of Dimes, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and Crop Walk (a Lutheran organization that raised money for the hungry). The March of Dimes supports stem cell research, pre-implantation diagnoses, and insurance coverage of birth control. Susan G Komen’s crime is that it “refuses to acknowledge the link between abortion and breast cancer.” (You know, false science.) Crop Walk is part of Church World Services, and some sections of Church World Services provide contraceptives in their work.

If H.R. 3 passes, the IRS would have to become the abortion police, determining that a woman who used pre-tax health care dollars to pay for an abortion did so because of one of the exceptions carved out in the law, according to the testimony of a tax expert at a House hearing on Wednesday. A former IRS agent said that “on audit [she] would have to demonstrate or prove, ideally by contemporaneous written documentation, that it was incest, or rape, or [her] life was in danger.”